By analogy to the concept of “Wind Ventilation Lane” used in urban heat island studies, the present paper proposes a new approach to reduce flood damage in urban areas, which is hereafter referred to ...as “Water Pathway”. The basic idea is to take advantage of the urban flooding characteristics that flood water tends to concentrate in roads and thus to channel flood water to designated areas where flood damage could be minimized or controlled. For feasibility study, a hybrid model is constructed, which combines a 2-D inundation model with a 1-D model for “Water Pathway”. The application to the Sanjo city flooding, which occurred last summer, shows clearly that the water pathway approach is promising. Besides, we propose that PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) should be dealt with as an important factor in flood damage reduction planning.
To spread seismic retrofit of houses drastically to reduce the damage of coming large earthquakes, the concept of “the national movement of disaster damage reduction” is effective. In the present ...paper, some projects done by the local government of Aichi prefecture are introduced and evaluated considering the effectiveness for inducing local people to do their own actions for disaster mitigation. After the analyses, fundamental factors for “the national movement of disaster damage reduction” and their effective application are shown.
Single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE), or comet assay, appears to be a promising tool to estimate DNA damage at the single cell level and it provides information on the presence of damage among ...individual cells. A follow-up study of 90 smokers who ceased smoking was undertaken to determine the possible decrease of DNA damage in their leukocytes. Before beginning the trial, volunteers smoked on average 26.1 +/- 8.4 cigarettes/day. Comet length did not correlate with the number of cigarettes/day or with the condensate tar content. At the end of the study, 28 volunteers had abandoned the trial, 40 volunteers relapsed into smoking at different times, but with a reduced number of cigarettes/day, whereas 22 fully succeeded in smoking cessation. Throughout the 5 sampling times, a great variability of comet length at individual level was found. However, after 1 year of follow-up, comet length means were found to be significantly shorter (p < 0.0001) in those volunteers who completely quit smoking compared to those who relapsed into smoking (27.2 +/- 1.6 vs. 31.9 +/- 5.1 microns, respectively), irrespective of the amount of cigarettes previously smoked. No effect of age or sex was found. Six months later, these results were confirmed by a further study carried out on a reduced sample of volunteers. The present data strongly suggest that, in spite of the great variability observed, 1 year of smoking cessation is associated with a significant reduction of DNA damage in circulating leukocytes.
The stepped stone revetment along the City of Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline, directly south of Montrose Harbor, is failing and in need of repair. The Illinois Historical Preservation Agency ...(IHPA) requested that the cut limestone blocks from the original structure be evaluated for use in the new revetment design. A physical model study was conducted at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory to assist in the design of the composite structure. During the experiments, overtopping rates were measured and stone stability was noted. Construction-related issues, overtopping, and the sizing and stability of cut limestone blocks were of major interest during the study.
New techniques were proposed for reducing the damage incurred to living tissues owing to temperature rise induced by surgical lasers. Precooling of the tissue and spatial filtering were evaluated ...numerically and were shown to be most effective in most surgical procedures. Application of pulse trains was also evaluated numerically and optimal operating conditions were identified.
During the 2004 hurricane season, four hurricanes made landfall within the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers' (USACE) South Atlantic Division. The season was extraordinary considering that these multiple ...storms were geographically clustered over a 6-week time frame. Hurricane Charley made landfall on the southwest coast of Florida on August 13, 2004. Hurricane Ivan made landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama, on September 16, 2004. Hurricane Frances came ashore on the central east coast of Florida on September 5, 2004 and was followed by Hurricane Jeanne on September 25, 2004 with a nearly identical point of landfall. Cumulatively, these storms caused varying degrees of wind, wave, inundation and erosion damage in the vicinity of numerous Federal and non-Federal shore protection projects. The Military Construction Appropriations and Emergency Hurricane Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2005 (Public Law 108-324) was passed in response to these unusual occurrences. It authorized an assessment of shore protection project performance and provided emergency supplemental funds to both the Construction, General and Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies Program accounts for emergency repairs to flood control and Federally authorized shore protection projects. The assessment of project performance, known as the Shore Protection Project Performance Improvement Initiative (S3P2I), is an $11 million program to evaluate the full spectrum of project performance including economic, environmental, physical response, and social effects. The program's mandate is evaluation of performance, not policy, although it supports companion USACE efforts to clearly define the Federal role in coastal management, including shore protection, with a focus on improving frameworks for project formulation, design, and decision support.
Carbon fiber reinforced plastic composites are popular in the aviation industry, and it is inevitable to drill holes within strict damage tolerances during assembly. However, drilling damages often ...occur at the drill-exit of carbon fiber reinforced plastic for lacking back support. This paper aims to study the drilling damages formation of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and further proposes a novel drill structure for reducing the damages. According to the damage formation of drill-exit fibers, the mathematical model is established to analyze the tool-fibers cutting process and fiber deflection. Then based on the cutting model, the multi-edge control force cutting method is proposed, and it is an effective method to cut off fibers with deflection control and damage reduction. In order to carry out the cutting effect, a novel clip-edges drill structure is proposed. The geometric analysis of the novel structure reveals that the structure can cut the fibers from both sides and reduce fiber resin cracking. Finally, comparative experiments are carried out in drilling carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and the novel drill bit with clip-edges drill structure can reduce drilling exit damage and obtain more high-quality holes.
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